Seniors Enjoy BBQ At Center

Nothing says summer like a good old fashioned BBQ event, which is exactly what happened on Saturday, Aug. 24 at the Fifth Street Senior Center, which was the first in years. Senior Services, Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), and the Senior Companion Program (SCP) collaborated for the first time in order to make the event possible. Seniors gathered at the Center located on West 5th Street in San Bernardino as early as 12:30 p.m. in anticipation of the $5 BBQ event which included food, games, prizes, music, and enough room to dance. The event was meant to be an ending of summer celebration while the weather still agrees it is summer. “It’s summer; you need to have a barbecue during the summer,” said interim recreation program supervisor LaKeisha Jackson, who coordinates programs for both Fifth Street Senior Center and Perris Hill Senior Center. “We normally do an end-of-winter event and we needed something for summer, so we did this.” Beginning at 1 p.m. seniors were able to enter the center’s auditorium and pick up raffle tickets to put in a box of their choice for a chance to win the prize they wanted, and take a seat at one of the many round tables spread along the walls of the room. “It’s too hot outside for the seniors,” said Kimberly Littlejohn, RSVP Manager, which helps place volunteer seniors 55 and older into volunteer sites around their area, covering Barstow, San Bernardino and Yucaipa. Once they found seating, guests were able to form a line to get their hamburgers and hot dogs fresh off the grill. Most of the seniors kicked up their heels and danced the rest of the time, shared Teri Dobbs, SCP manager, a program which involves volunteers ages 55 and older who visit other elderly once a week and do various things with their clients. “Our seniors like to dance more than anything,” shared Jackson. “They can dance for hours.” “Barbecues in summer are fun,” said Littlejohn. Dobbs said there was an event called Spring Fling that used to happen at the Center in May but stopped about 10 years ago. “Normally our summers are kind of laid back, and we figured we would go out with a bang this year and do something different,” added Jackson. “We are always working together to help each other. Even though we are different programs, we work together like a community,” stated Dobbs. Littlejohn, Jackson and Dobbs have all stressed they would like to host this event and others together again in the future. “We would like to have one next year; we need to step up our game and do it bigger and better next year, definitely,” said Jackson.